Financial Crime

Fraud & Financial Crime

The Fraud & Financial Crime Team was set up to meet the growing needs of both prosecuting authorities and defence solicitors as well as advising solicitors and accountants in this rapidly expanding area of law.

The team provides specialist advocacy and advisory services in all aspects of financial crime work. Team members have appeared in many of the leading cases and have extensive experience of financial crime cases both in the UK and foreign jurisdictions.

“Financial crime” is defined in the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 to include any offence involving (a) fraud or dishonesty, (b) misconduct in, or misuse of information relating to a financial market, or (c) handling the proceeds of crime. With the addition of confiscation and civil recovery, this definition neatly summarises the areas of work in which the Financial Crime Team specialises.

The demands of a financial crime case

Successful involvement in a financial crime case involves special skills and experience. As well as painstaking attention to detail, advocates and advisors must be equipped to respond to complex legal issues arising in financial crime cases. Familiarity with cross-border processes for extradition and mutual assistance in the gathering of evidence is also vital.

Also, with asset confiscation having become a central feature of criminal justice policy, it is critical for practitioners in financial crime cases to have extensive knowledge of the way in which the restraint and confiscation regime operates.

By virtue of their experience and expertise, members of the Financial Crime Team are able to offer an holistic advocacy and advisory service in this challenging area of work.

Serious organised crime and money laundering

The association between serious organised crime and financial crime is well documented, and money laundering prosecutions are often brought in cases where the underlying criminal conduct involves drug-trafficking, people trafficking, revenue crime or some other form of serious organised crime. Having undertaken a considerable amount of work over the years in Customs and Revenue cases, members of the Financial Crime Team are well equipped to handle these cases.

FRAUD

Team members have considerable experience of complex, document heavy cases and are in a position to give advice throughout the investigative stage of fraud and financial crime cases as well as appearing at trial and in ancillary hearings.

We have particular expertise in Serious Fraud Office and Revenue cases. Team members have appeared in many of the leading fraud cases in recent years

Re: U Advising pre charge in a multi million pound fraud on a Housing Association

HSBC v Brown (Southwark Crown Court) Defence of a high-profile donor to the Liberal Democrat party, accused of a large number of offences of false accounting as well as attempting to pervert the course of justice.

In addition, team members have been involved in many of the major fraud cases which involved household names, such as Wickes, BCCI, Nadir, Levitt and Nissan UK.

ECONOMIC CRIME

As well as fraud cases, we are experienced in other types of financial crime cases, such as those involving corruption, cartels, and accounting offences. In fact, any acquisitive criminal offence will rank as economic crime.

One area of work where we have particular experience is criminal cases involving the regulation of the financial markets. A number of team members have spent significant periods of time seconded to work with the Financial Conduct Authority, and there are others who have spent time at Lloyds of London, the Office of Fair Trading and the Serious Fraud Office.
Team members have been involved in the following leading insider dealing cases:

As acknowledged experts in the field of financial crime, members of the Financial Crime Team publish material on a regular basis. The team writes a quarterly Financial Crime Update for Butterworths Journal of International Banking and Financial Law.